In the Blink of an Eye
by perfectromanceinmymind
Summary: One shot equally inspired by the brief April scene in 9X05 "Beautiful Doom" and by the tumblr prompt "Jackson and April watching Zola either babysitting at home or at the hospital."


**Hope you enjoy - please let me know! (Also, hopefully more of 'Just Let Me Hold You..." will be forthcoming this week. I hope!)**

* * *

"Crap, crap, crap."

April couldn't help muttering under her breath as she raced down the hall and around the corner into the ER, only vaguely aware of Shane trailing behind her.

She skidded to a stop in front of the ER desk, where Ted was looking at a chart.

"Where is she?" she demanded, trying to catch her breath as the nurse looked up, bewildered.

"He's a he," he replied, confused, holding up the chart as April shook her head impatiently.

"Not the patient. Zola! Where's Zola?" Her voice was edging towards her hysterical mode and she glanced back at Shane, cringing slightly to see the expression on his face, which clearly said 'please do not make me have to go back and tell Medusa that we can't find her kid.'

"Oh, Zola!" Ted said, the confusion clearing from his face. "Dr. Avery just took her, just like Dr. Karev said he would. They went that way," he added, gesturing down the hall, in the opposite direction of where they'd come from.

"Oh, thank God," Shane muttered and April would have glared at him, except that it was exactly what she had been thinking too, so she just said, "Thanks, Ted" and took off in the direction he'd indicated, Shane still at her heels.

She was still moving a little faster through the halls than she normally would, but she could tell her heart rate was slowing back down to a more normal speed. Ugh. One of these days she'd learn how to respond to things without panicking, right?

They rounded another corner and burst through the entrance of the attendings' lounge, where Jackson was sitting at the table, Zola on his lap, attempting to get her to eat a carrot.

"C'mon, Zo," he was saying in a vaguely pleading tone, "I've seen you eat these for your daddy. Just have a bite?"

Zola just giggled and shook her head as Jackson turned to see what the commotion was behind him.

"What is wrong with you two?"

April shook her head. "No-nothing," she stammered out, also trying to catch her breath. "Meredith saw me without Zola when I was supposed to have her and so she panicked a little and that made me panic a little and –"

"Miss Zola!" Richard interrupted as he maneuvered past where April and Shane were blocking the doorway. "Are you an attending already?"

Zola grinned as Richard reached into the pocket of his lab coat. "I thought I might find you here," he said, pulling out a small bag of gummy worms and handing them to the toddler. "So I brought you a little something."

Jackson frowned as Zola immediately, happily, shoved some worms in her mouth. "But, sir – Meredith wants her to eat her carrots –"

Richard waved off his protest. "It's fine, Avery. A little candy never hurt any child."

Jackson sighed, looking over at April, who responded with a simple 'what-can-you-do' shrug, before turning to Shane. "Um, Dr. Ross, as you can see, Zola is perfectly safe and fine with us, so you can go back to Dr. Grey's surgery now and let her know that everything is okay."

Shane nodded and quickly made an exit.

"Ah gon!" Zola crowed, pushing the empty paper bag in Jackson's direction.

"Wish your carrots were all gone," Jackson muttered and Richard chuckled.

"Well, it seems as though Zola is in good hands," he said. "I have some patients to check on, so I'll leave you to keep pushing those carrots, Avery." He smiled in that sometimes annoyingly all knowing way he had and nodded at April as he headed for the door.

"Thank you, sir," Jackson said dryly and April stifled a giggle. Jackson had always struggled with things not going the way he wanted them to go.

"Not funny," Jackson said pointedly and April shrugged innocently.

"I didn't say it was."

"I heard you laughing."

April didn't say anything, just crossed the room to sit down on the couch. In all honestly, she was struggling to keep her brain working properly pretty much anytime she was around Jackson lately. They'd try to have a conversation and somehow they'd always just end up naked.

But that definitely couldn't and wasn't going to happen right now. Not with a sweet little two year old in the room.

It was funny, April thought as she looked at them, Jackson holding Zola in his lap, back to coaxing a carrot on her. Somehow, Jackson holding a child made him seem suddenly even more attractive. It was really weird. A part of her had always wondered how her parents had managed to have 4 children in the space of about six years, but looking at Jackson holding Zola made her feel like she could understand a little bit. Maybe seeing her dad holding their babies had made him even more attractive to her mother.

April shook her head just the tiniest bit. She'd never even thought about having children, not really. Not beyond a far-off, maybe someday kind of thought. You know, if she ever found a guy who could even stand being around her, let alone consider pro-creating with her.

Oh. My. God.

She looked over at Jackson again and then back down at her lap. She'd just had a realization. In the blink of an eye, her whole perspective had suddenly shifted.

What if she had found that guy?

Her heartbeat was suddenly speeding up again as her brain began to whir at top speed also.

A big part of her constantly felt guilty about all of the time she spent on - extra-curricular – activities with Jackson. But there was a tiny part of her that somehow managed to overrule the guilt – because being with him just felt so freakin' right.

And maybe it was. Maybe he was the right one. She'd been trying to convince herself it was all just sex, it was all just casual and that's all it would ever be, but maybe…

Maybe she'd just been fooling herself. Looking at him, talking to Zola – suddenly she realized she wanted that with him. She wanted – everything. A partnership, a relationship – a family.

Crap.

A loud 'crunch' broke into her thoughts and she looked up to see Jackson grinning triumphantly.

"Ha!" he said. "Finally!"

April laughed. "I knew she'd give in eventually. You're very persuasive."

Jackson grinned knowingly at her. "I am, aren't I?"

April felt her stomach flipping as she did her best to grin back at him. "Yep. You really are."

Jackson held her gaze for a minute, looking as if he might be about to say something, but before he could, the lounge door opened and Dr. Hunt came in.

"Sorry, guys, I'm not late, am I?"

Jackson shook his head, as he glanced at the clock. "Nah, right on time. She's supposed to be eating these carrots, but it may be time to give up on that." He nodded towards a bag on the other end of the couch. "She's got some books in there. Maybe she'll be ready to get some sleep soon." He looked over at April. "Wanna get out of here?"

April nodded as she stood up and followed him to the door as Owen nodded at both of them. "Alright, well, you guys have a good night."

"You too," Jackson said as he and April stepped out into the hallway and he turned to look at her. "You want to – get dinner or – something?"

"Something…" April echoed absently, not fully realizing what she'd said until Jackson grinned and grabbed her hand and started walking in the direction of the on-call rooms.

"That's cool with me," he said.

April blinked, startled out of her reverie. "I figured," she said, forcing a grin to her face and a light teasing tone to her voice.

And it was cool with her. It really was.

It would just be so much cooler if it meant to him what it meant to her.


End file.
